Re: [PATCH] thp: avoid atomic64_read in pmd_read_atomic for 32bit PAE\

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad@darnok.org>]

On Thu, Jun 07, 2012 at 11:00:33PM +0200, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
> In the x86 32bit PAE CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE=y case while holding
> the mmap_sem for reading, cmpxchg8b cannot be used to read pmd
> contents under Xen.
> 
> So instead of dealing only with "consistent" pmdvals in
> pmd_none_or_trans_huge_or_clear_bad() (which would be conceptually
> simpler) we let pmd_none_or_trans_huge_or_clear_bad() deal with pmdvals
> where the low 32bit and high 32bit could be inconsistent (to avoid
> having to use cmpxchg8b).

<nods>
> 
> The only guarantee we get from pmd_read_atomic is that if the low part
> of the pmd was found null, the high part will be null too (so the pmd
> will be considered unstable). And if the low part of the pmd is found
> "stable" later, then it means the whole pmd was read atomically
> (because after a pmd is stable, neither MADV_DONTNEED nor page faults
> can alter it anymore, and we read the high part after the low part).
> 
> In the 32bit PAE x86 case, it is enough to read the low part of the
> pmdval atomically to declare the pmd as "stable" and that's true for
> THP and no THP, furthermore in the THP case we also have a barrier()
> that will prevent any inconsistent pmdvals to be cached by a later
> re-read of the *pmd.

Nice. Andrew, any chane you could test this patch on the affected
Xen hypervisors? Was it as easy to reproduce this on a RHEL5 (U1?)
hypervisor or is it really only on Linode and Amazon EC2?

> 
> Signed-off-by: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>
> ---
>  arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level.h |   30 +++++++++++++++++-------------
>  include/asm-generic/pgtable.h         |   10 ++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level.h
> index 43876f1..cb00ccc 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable-3level.h
> @@ -47,16 +47,26 @@ static inline void native_set_pte(pte_t *ptep, pte_t pte)
>   * they can run pmd_offset_map_lock or pmd_trans_huge or other pmd
>   * operations.
>   *
> - * Without THP if the mmap_sem is hold for reading, the
> - * pmd can only transition from null to not null while pmd_read_atomic runs.
> - * So there's no need of literally reading it atomically.
> + * Without THP if the mmap_sem is hold for reading, the pmd can only
> + * transition from null to not null while pmd_read_atomic runs. So
> + * we can always return atomic pmd values with this function.
>   *
>   * With THP if the mmap_sem is hold for reading, the pmd can become
> - * THP or null or point to a pte (and in turn become "stable") at any
> - * time under pmd_read_atomic, so it's mandatory to read it atomically
> - * with cmpxchg8b.
> + * trans_huge or none or point to a pte (and in turn become "stable")
> + * at any time under pmd_read_atomic. We could read it really
> + * atomically here with a atomic64_read for the THP enabled case (and
> + * it would be a whole lot simpler), but to avoid using cmpxchg8b we
> + * only return an atomic pmdval if the low part of the pmdval is later
> + * found stable (i.e. pointing to a pte). And we're returning a none
> + * pmdval if the low part of the pmd is none. In some cases the high
> + * and low part of the pmdval returned may not be consistent if THP is
> + * enabled (the low part may point to previously mapped hugepage,
> + * while the high part may point to a more recently mapped hugepage),
> + * but pmd_none_or_trans_huge_or_clear_bad() only needs the low part
> + * of the pmd to be read atomically to decide if the pmd is unstable
> + * or not, with the only exception of when the low part of the pmd is
> + * zero in which case we return a none pmd.
>   */
> -#ifndef CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE
>  static inline pmd_t pmd_read_atomic(pmd_t *pmdp)
>  {
>  	pmdval_t ret;
> @@ -74,12 +84,6 @@ static inline pmd_t pmd_read_atomic(pmd_t *pmdp)
>  
>  	return (pmd_t) { ret };
>  }
> -#else /* CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE */
> -static inline pmd_t pmd_read_atomic(pmd_t *pmdp)
> -{
> -	return (pmd_t) { atomic64_read((atomic64_t *)pmdp) };
> -}
> -#endif /* CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE */
>  
>  static inline void native_set_pte_atomic(pte_t *ptep, pte_t pte)
>  {
> diff --git a/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h b/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h
> index ae39c4b..0ff87ec 100644
> --- a/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h
> +++ b/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h
> @@ -484,6 +484,16 @@ static inline int pmd_none_or_trans_huge_or_clear_bad(pmd_t *pmd)
>  	/*
>  	 * The barrier will stabilize the pmdval in a register or on
>  	 * the stack so that it will stop changing under the code.
> +	 *
> +	 * When CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE=y on x86 32bit PAE,
> +	 * pmd_read_atomic is allowed to return a not atomic pmdval
> +	 * (for example pointing to an hugepage that has never been
> +	 * mapped in the pmd). The below checks will only care about
> +	 * the low part of the pmd with 32bit PAE x86 anyway, with the
> +	 * exception of pmd_none(). So the important thing is that if
> +	 * the low part of the pmd is found null, the high part will
> +	 * be also null or the pmd_none() check below would be
> +	 * confused.
>  	 */
>  #ifdef CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE
>  	barrier();
> 
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